


The Muzik Mafia Incident

by Tezca



Category: Country Music RPF
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Diary/Journal, Gen, POV First Person, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 12:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3488258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tezca/pseuds/Tezca
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Ugh I’m sorry I know that sounds totally cliched and overused, but trust me this cliche rings true with Kenny and John. By now I’m surprised they haven’t taken advantage of the new law allowing same sex marriage in Virginia by now.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Muzik Mafia Incident

Oh those boys of mine they always bicker, its just in the nature of things seeing how those two are seemingly the unlikeliest of friends. Ugh I’m sorry I know that sounds totally cliched and overused, but trust me this cliche rings true with Kenny and John. By now I’m surprised they haven’t taken advantage of the new law allowing same sex marriage in Virginia by now. If you spend a week or two with them, you’ll think they were married already. Always going at each other like an old married couple. 

They known each other for so long, having met each other back in 1998. It was pretty obvious they were like two planets enroute to a collision to each other, I can understand in part if an outsider were to come up to me and ask how the heck did your husband and John survive each other for so damn long without maiming each other. Ok no one would really ask me that question because its just obvious, I mean there are probably hundreds and hundreds of unlikely friendships and marriages out there in the world that you probably have to be some sort of cynical person to even ask that. 

I mean yeah sure people may acknowledge the seemingly weird pair that is Kenny and John, hell even they had poke fun at the differences between them before. Between you and me I still feel amazed and in awe in how strong their friendship is like I just have a feeling its one of those deals where the bond they share between each other lasts for many lifetimes. Like they could’ve been married many times before and they have also been close friends many times as well before being born in their present forms. Sometimes it feels like I'm getting in the way of what they always destined to be, that is together under the sheets at night, but then again I’m not an expert in this reincarnation kind of stuff. Its just a weird little feeling I would get at times.

But I realized a while back that it would make sense, that if they are soulmates truly bonded for all eternity then they would also go through and experience many walks of life. I mean it would make more sense to me that along with being totally gay for each other across multiple lifetimes, they were also be in a het relationship, familial relationship. Ones where either John or Kenny is transgender or bi or what have you. Shit I had a vivid dream one time that way back in the 1000s, John was a sworn virgin living in Eastern Europe and Kenny was a traveler who was looking for a place to stay the night so “John” offer him his place for the night and he ended up living there and helping “John” raise his family. 

I don’t know why I had that dream, maybe it came about because I watched National Geographic that night and the fact that I always was interested in the idea of Kenny and John’s souls between intertwined for all eternity. Even weirder though that I can still remember it in clear detail. And its not just that one dream, I can remember other vivid dreams of Kenny and John in different lifetimes. Like in Roman times or Greek times. I think one of my favorites is the Aztec one where “John” ended up being a slave for a nobleman, “Kenny” to pay off a debt. They just had a good dynamic going on between each other and it got me interested enough to learn what the Aztec version of slavery was as oppose to the Europeans at the time. I don’t want to turn this into some academic 29 page essay lecturing you on the subject ,as a whole but I will say for clarification sake that slaves in the Aztec empire were treated far nicer and it wasn’t hereditary. It was all personal, hence “John” doing it to pay off something.

Anyway there is a point to all this expositions and rambling I’m doing,,, so don’t fret readers, I won’t bore you any longer. Thing is you know what I just talked about in the last first page, right? Well there was a time where I thought maybe I was wrong about them being eternal soulmates. It was when the Muzik Mafia were in its golden years of actually being a thing, an actual group in Nashville. Of course back then no one would think to classify it as being in the golden years., In fact if I had to liken the state of the group to stages of life back then, I would say probably still in the adult stage, somewhere in the 30s.

Thats just my view on it, and all the members of the Muzik Mafia would have different opinions on that. My ever so happy go lucky husband would've probably said, “Oh its still in the young adult stage,, the group is gonna keep growing and it’ll be a major point in Nashville music history, just wait and see Chris.” Of course this would be before things played out liked they have. The so called Muzik Mafia incident. 

Right. 

Where should I begin? Well for starters there was already tensions between those two, John back then would act more rowdy and more akin to an out of control young partier than he is now. I think having a family and kids matured him to the point where I heard Kenny uttering thanks to God that John has calmed down enough to himself once or twice a Thanksgiving after grace was said. I honestly don’t know what was going on through his head at the point, but me and Kenny just always assumed he was going through some midlife crisis. 

Actually Kenny has a strong feeling that that might’ve been the case. Plus John now realize why the hiatus happened when it did. If Kenny hadn’t needed to rest at the time and they went on that European tour with Bon Jovi, then they could’ve very well imploded and they wouldn’t be a band anymore much less friends probably. 2007 John didn’t quite get that, in fact his first reaction was to suggest jacking Kenny up on steroids and do the tour....that kid was riding on the high of performing for the crowds, playing music. He still does, but he’s obviously grown since then.

There were other factors that played into the falling out of the Muzik Mafia, the tour was cancelled and there were still tensions between Kenny and John,. Several people would claimed 2007 after the whole tour fiasco was the beginning of the end of Big and Rich and I thought that was going to happened too. I figure than that by now Kenny and John were going to just stop talking to each other altogether and just go on with our own lives. John would still be the partying asshole who has sex with a half a dozen women every night while my husband becomes a full blown humanitarian. Or a carpenter, or, more accurately both. Basically I just thought at that point the idea of them being soulmates were just fantasy dreams that somehow turned to wishful thinking because I liked the idea too much subconsciously. I mean John was, to be blunt, acting like an asshole back then and he’ll admit now too, and obviously Kenny wasn’t putting up with it so my thinking was how could they be soulmates forever bonded through the sea of time if all they do was get at each other's throats all the time?

It all happened in early January of 2008, around John's birthday. I think it might've been the 7th, Kenny and several guys showed up that morning only to fine half the crew members or whoever suppose to show up missing. There was no sign of John, Cowboy Troy and Gretchen. So it was like a mad dash suddenly to call up guys and get the equipment needed to put on what Kenny said was an awesome Mafia. It was a crazy morning and Kenny did tried calling John but of course he wouldn't answer and that only served to worry and piss Kenny off more. 

He tried several times, I know cause he told me and while he knew John hasn't been responding to his emails and such for many months prior, he thought John would have some explanation as to why he didn't show up and have the decency to explain at least that.

Come to find out later after the fact that John deceptively lied to the crew members that the event was cancelled or if they went, they would be fired. He was like a.....a selfish manipulative bastard all just so he can hang out with Troy, Gretchen, and other friends at The Spot to celebrate his birthday. The Spot was a private club he owned by the way.

Needlessly to say when Kenny found out he started cussing him out and went into an impressive 20 minute long rant. He was feeling more pissed and more bitter than he already been having and this is something that wasn’t written in the books. The guy that wrote the academic essay for this master thesis on the Muzik Mafia and the social coming and goings of the group thought it veered a little too much into the department of too much negative information about the boys. So he did the respectful thing and cut that part of his notes out.

I, however, am Christiev so thus I'm obviously not him...and given how I am writing all of this in a journal I keep for whenever I get bored enough to write in it, I am gonna let you metaphorical readers know what went down. See it wasn’t until a couple days later somewhere in a bar that he ran into John and the others. It was more they running into Kenny because when they arrived, Kenny was already there downing his 3rd glass of alcohol. 

Kenny was still rather pissed over the whole ordeal, I mean the kind of pissed that’ll tell you to back off and maybe you should just get the hell out of his or her sight.. and I don’t think John realize he’d made a mistake...made a huge kind of a mistake really, until that night. I don’t think anyone did to tell you truth. So Kenny got out of his seat to go to the bathroom only to noticed John and Troy come in and walk up to the bar chatting away. He told me he was planning on confronting John after he was finished, but that plan went down the toilet when John had entered the bathroom just as he came out of the stall.

The amount of alcohol he had prior clouded his judgment as y'all are probably aware the effects of liquor can have on you. His inhibitions was loosen and so that caused him to confront John then and there. The amount of bitterness he had spewing out of his voice as he asked him why the hell he did what did? Why he had to be an asshole and lie to the people working for us and all that crap. The whole thing was just one huge chaotic argument that ended badly. Kenny ended up doing something he regretted, that is he ended up beating John up. 

Not enough to send him straight to the hospital for days in recovery, but enough to notice the evidence on his face and his eye. Kenny had also told John some pretty nasty stuff. The whole ordeal was enough to have shaken John pretty damn good for a while. It was the words Kenny said to him that shook him up, not so much the fighting. Those two have thrown punches at each other before over stupider things after they had drank so they were used to that.

Kenny didn't even remember what he said exactly to John until the next morning when he was getting ready for the day. I was still in bed sleeping in because that day was a slower day for me and I’ve been wanting to take advantage of the extra hour I had before I had to go work on a music video. I forget what artist I was helping with the clothes, it might’ve been Miranda Lambert, then my mind wants to say Carrie Underwood. Either way thats not important to the narration of this little story. I was getting all comfortable and snuggly under the sheets as I felt my husband’s weight lift off the bed shortly followed by the sounds of the water gong from the shower. I was letting the sounds lull me off to sleep and next thing I knew I was woken up by Kenny shaking me with panic in his voice. I rubbed my eyes and sat up and boy did Kenny looked distraught, the color drained from his face as he looked like he’d just realized he may have committed the most heinous crime ever. 

He told me that he ran into John the previous night and in short he may have said nasty things to John, things he would’ve not said if he had been sober. He didn’t remember the whole entire conversation but it was enough to know he said some mean stuff like wishing him ill will kinda mean. Now I want to clarify that that was the alcohol talking full stop, he didn’t really mean those things like how you say shit you don’t mean when you’re emotional. And having all the pent up anger and bitter feelings about the whole incident, plus a few other things John has done didn’t help matters all. The alcohol open the floodgates for him to take it out on John,

Kenny was understandably freaking out and he was kicking himself over it. He wanted to apologize to John, but he didn’t know how exactly he should go about it since he figured John would probably be completely shaken up after what he said to him. He thought it would feel a bit awkward at the point in time to go apologize, he felt it would be better to wait a while and instead wanted to gauge how long he should wait. 

So thats how I found myself later that day with a stupid flimsy excuse Kenny came up with on the spot for me to find myself over at John’s place. he told me to pretend I left something there. I decided to go with the, “I need some extra fabric that he has to make for a client of mine,” I knew that would work cause I knew he has some lying around in case he needs to mend some tear or something.

Yes readers John can sew, or at least enough to be able to repair stuff. There’s your other Big and Rich secret of the day, you can thank his Grannie for that one, she taught him some basics when he was young. 

The lie work and the plan was to rummage through his stash while keeping an eye out for any worrying signs that what Kenny said to him affected him and how badly it did. I was pretty confident that I was able to read a person’s language and deduce what they might be feeling. I mean I was no Sherlock Holmes, but if I paid attention and was observant than I could get the general gist of it. 

First thing I noticed that he had a bruise around his eye so I asked what happened? He played it off saying it was just some stupid general bar fight that he got in. I didn’t go any further, but I assumed he didn’t want to say because he was still in shock over the whole thing and the wound was still fresh. Probably denial too, but I’m not the one with the psyche degree, Troy is. Plus it would be rude and nosy of me to pry since I was playing dumb. I pretended to rummage and mull over the fabrics for about ten minutes before just choosing one and getting out. I didn't want to stay there to the point where he might get suspicious, I'm glad it didn't get to that part because for one thing I would've felt a bit awkward trying to explain what's going on. 

We said our goodbyes and I realize he was being soft spoken and sounding meekly even you can say. It wasn't really like him, he would usually sound upbeat and animated like he is taking the day by the horns and kicking in the ground in an effort to enjoy it! But that day he just looked liked he wanted to retreat from the world and hide for a little while. Of course a day or two later it would look like he was back on his feet with his usual rowdy, "Lets drink and have fun" attitude. That was his public image I didn't know exactly how he was still feeling privately, but I did not want to assume. 

I went home and gave Kenny the rundown on what I observed and it just served to make him feel even more guilty and more regret about what he said. I still didn't know what he said exactly, but he had said he didn't want to go into detail, he didn't want to think about what did. I understood and backed off, he could tell me whenever he feels ready. All I understood was it was something he said that was unlike him. He thought it would it be good to avoid John for a while, give them a little space and whatnot. 

So thats what we did, for the next few months Kenny didn’t make an effort to contact John and vice versa, it seemed like John was avoiding Kenny too. It was also during those few months that Kenny finally confided in me exactly what he said. Yes I was surprised that he would say something like that, but strangely at the same time I wasn’t. You have to remember this is John we were talking about, the guy that acting like such an asshole in general that they were going to suspend him from the Muzik Mafia, but that never came to be. The reason in my own words is, how the hell can you dual out a punishment if the offender isn’t gonna listen to you and take it seriously. 

John would’ve not, at least not back then he wouldn’t. If it happened now then he would and would probably seriously reflect on what he did wrong and apologize. Back then he would’ve laughed at their faces and act like “Y’all can’t tell me what to do, I’m John fucking Rich!”

When I finally got my bearings and looked over, I could see Kenny was crying. he was lying down on the bed. I honestly wasn’t sure what to say except saying that John probably knows he didn’t mean it. I wasn’t sure if that was helping, Kenny was crying into his pillow and I could hearing his sniffles so I just settled to hugging him and cuddling up with him. I reassured him that everyone says things they don’t mean sometimes. Shit I know I have whenever I gotten drunk, talking about my first husband back in the day. Seriously that guy was an ass, but that's another story for another day.

That wasn’t the first time I would console my husband regarding the matter and I was happy to do so as a concern and loving wife. I was also concerned about John and wondering how he was doing at the same time since I did considered him a friend, but I didn’t want to make anything more complicated or worse so I relegated to keeping an eye on this twitter feed, which didn’t really help me any. The guy is really private that I knew, but I figure that maybe there might be a pattern in the tweets following the Incident, but then I realize his twitter account falls aligned with John the celebrity and not John the actual person. They do intercept fairly often, but John isn’t the kind of person to air his emotions a lot on twitter(unless that emotion was anger at someone else or something politics).

I didn’t get a chance to get any good clues into the mindset of John Rich and how he was feeling since then until a few months later, I think maybe 6 but don’t quote me on that. it was such a long time ago that my memory became a little fuzzy around the edges. I do know that I was working on a music video for one of the many country singers out there in Nashville and it was beautiful sunny day and I was currently taking my break as the artist I was styling was currently singing and being filmed. Out the blue I felt my phone ring and surprise, that’s not sarcasm I was actually quite surprised, I recognized the number as Troy’s. So I quickly ducked out as quiet as I could and walked over to an area where I knew I wouldn’t be bother as I took the call.

_I remember much of how the discussion went so I’ll actually lay them out for you as best I could._

_“Hey Chris, umm are you busy at the moment? I need to talk to you….”_

_“You can say I’m taking a break, the singer is currently….singing so maybe 20 at the max.”_

_“That’s cool actually, me and John are out shopping for new boots and he thinks I’m looking for something my wife wants in another store so I got 20-30 minutes before he realizes something is up. So….um….did Kenny ever...um…”_

_“He told me everything Troy, he told me what he said to John and it’s been eating him ever since. So I assumed John told you then?”_

_“Yeah, he confided in me about a few days after, he bullshitted initially and said it was some stupid punk who had one beer too many. John was acting kinda weird a few days after and I was about to say something when he told me.”_

_“Yeah….Kenny wants to apologize but he doesn’t know how to approach it. He regrets saying all those hurtful things to John.”_

_“It shook him up pretty bad gotta be honest, but I think he’s better now. I helped him through it of course. I was pissed at Kenny at first, but I did some thinking and now I realize why he did it and it done got me disappointed at John over the whole shit again. If he hadn’t lied then Kenny would’ve never hit him like that nor said those things to him in the first place.”_

_“Right. That...that makes sense. “_

_“I shouldn’t believed him so quickly in the first place, I should’ve called around and have it be verified by the other godfathers but no I had to be such a fucking idiot…”_

_“Troy you’re not an idiot, of course you’re going to be quick to believe John, I mean you guys were best buds for 20 years so therefore you feel he is trustworthy…”_

_“I know but Chris that doesn’t excuse any of this, I mean I should’ve been smart enough to feel like something was amiss. I just feel like this is somewhat my fault too...”_

_“ Its not your fault Troy, John was the one that was acting like a stereotypical Mafia godfather going around threatening hits on everyone if they didn’t follow his orders. not you.”_

_“Haha….oh shit John is coming, I’ll call you later.”_

That’s when the call ended abruptly and don’t worry I’ll pass over the boring parts inbetween events and just simply skip to the next time I got together with Troy. It was a week later and he texted me to come meet him at some restaurant for lunch. For this just know that Troy’s idea of a disguise was sunglasses and switching out the cowboy hat for a fedora. I will, yet again kindly give you what was said as I can remember that discussion fairly well too.

_“Hey Christiev nice to see you.”_

_“Nice to see you too Troy…..uhhh….”_

_“Oh the fedora? You like it? It reminded me of the one my mom’s father used to wear so I bought it.”_

_“Yeah, I’m just...used to seeing you in a cowboy hat haha.”_

_“Yeah, but I don’t want to be hassled today. Not right now.”_

_“I understand. Does Gretchen know about this too?”_

_“Yeah John spilled the beans to her after she asked what was up. He had asked her to turn off the music since hearing Kenny’s voice made him feel uncomfortable for a time.”_

_“I see and how is he now with that?”_

_“Still makes him kinda uncomfortable...now it just serves to remind him of what he did to earn him that night at the bar….he thinks he kinda deserved it.”_

_“But Kenny shouldn’t probably said all that stuff in such a….an abrasive matter.”_

_“I know, it could’ve gone better, a hell of a lot better, but it didn’t so we have to deal with the aftermath.”_

_“Yeah no kidding there....Speaking of which Kenny still avoiding John and drowning his regrets over it with whiskey.”_

_"Did I tell you what me and John were doing at the bar? That was his way of making it up for lying outright to my face. Paying for that night's drink and dinner."_

_"Oh?....no you haven't."_

_"Well it was, Gretchen would've been there too, but she has something to do with Grace that night."_

_"Do you think they'll ever make up? A part of me hopes so..."_

_"So do I Chris, so do I. Probably be some time before they do though."_

_"Hopefully sooner than later."_

_"Yeah no doubt there."_

Me and Troy talked about other thing mostly after that, namely work, family...the usual kind of shit you'll expect in a conversation between friends. Nothing to important happened afterwards to add to here....at least not for awhile, life went on for all of us the best it could despite all the issues Kenny and John had over this. They weren't going to let this Incident take over their lives and career, they wanted to still make music and not let any of the fans down. Which I admire them for doing. 

It wasn't until three or four months after Kenny was off in Haiti looking for his friend in 2010 that John mustered up the courage to finally apologize to him. He did it in the best way he knew how, that is by writing a song and well to be perfectly honest here y'all, not like John is actually gonna see this, but he kinda freaked out in the middle of the process of writing and called me.

_"Chris?...pick up, pick up, pick up..."_

_"I can hear you John."_

_"Oh thank god, listen Chris you have to help me! I'm freaking out......is Kenny still pissed at me? Oh god this is my fault, I'm such a damn idiot, I brought the Muzik Mafia down....I was the one that fucking broke up the group, oh fuck Kenny probably hates me and that guy never hates anyone..."_

_"John calm down everything will be alright....yes Kenny doesn't really want to talk about it honestly, I mean none of us does, but he doesn't hate you. I say more dissappointed in you really..."_

_"I was expecting that.....I finally found a way to apologize to him and I'm having seconds thoughts over if its still soon, I mean will he accept it?"_

_"I'm sure he will if your apology is sincere and heartfelt...."_

_"Its the most sincere I've ever been with one of these and I didn't want to do via a sappy note or whatever so I figure a song would do."_

_"I think that is lovely idea, he'll love it I'm sure...."_

_"Thanks. I only have half done...do...do you want to hear it?"_

_"Sure!...............Oh my god that is so beautiful what you have so far John!"_

_"Thanks. So you think he'll like it?"_

_"Yes and you can even perform it for him live...well not live live but like....private live..."_

_"Haha well uhh....well I was kinda thinking I can just.....umm....email him the song....or whatever......do...do you...really think that'll be a good idea? Performing in front of him...."_

_"It might help him see the emotions you're conveying and he's pretty observant so if you do it right, he'll forgive you."_

_"Yeah.....well....uhh.....alright...I guess......um thanks Christiev."_

_"Anytime and just so you know Kenny been regretting the actions and things he said years ago....so don't fret about anything happening."_

_"Yeah, thanks.....bye."_

_"Bye."_

Well it took a few days to when me and Kenny would be able to go over to his house being busy and all, Gretchen and Troy were there too, and he offered to cook us dinner as well. That was nice of him, and he told us he'll perform the song afterwards. Boy if you were there, you would be able to readily notice how John was nervous about it. Like not blatantly nervous, but enough to notice if you really paid attention. Or even paid half attention. John would stand next to Troy whenever he talked to Kenny, like Troy was his bodyguard ready to protect him if needed. And those boys were acting uncharacteristically shy around each other like they didn't know what to say due to feeling awkward. I think it might've been that actually, they felt awkward around each other over something you think they would've put it to rest years ago over a heartfelt discussion, but didn't because they let their feelings and issues get in the way.

John would hesitate for a moment everytime he tried to talk to Kenny and viceversa Kenny didn't say a lot either, well at first but then halfway through dinner he started apologizing to John for what he did and how he never meant all those hurtful words he said to him. It was really emotional like Kenny started crying and John was getting emotional too, telling him that he forgives him and how he wrote an apology song for him. 

Kenny was touched to hear that and encouraged him to go play it, he wanted to hear it and John ended up blowing blowing us all away with his performance. And you can tell John was putting every bit of emotion he can into his voice because he sounded like he was about to cry, but caught himself just barely so he'll be able to play it without any interruptions. It was heartfelt, and Kenny seemed to think so do since those two immediately walked to each other for a good old fashioned hug. Those two were showing silent tears to each other and basically acted like a married and truly in love couple making up after a big argument. 

It did my heart good to see those boys finally make up after not really seeing other for years. It made me think that perhaps maybe they really are connected throughout time and space forevermore. I was pleasantly happy to realize a short time after that the part of me that thought all those vivid dreams I had, the kinds I mentioned earlier on here, weren't just wishful thinking after all, that perhaps there was some truth to it. The bonds that Kenny and John share will never be broken and their souls intertwined together for eternity and will continue to be. 

Sorry I got a little philosophical on ya readers. As for the dreams I never completely stopped having them, I mean they waned a bit for a while there during the years between the Incident and 2010 when they made up, but since then the dreams been coming back to the usual levels I would have them before. That is once a while. But the setting changed this time around, for the most part at least, they would take place in the future. Either the near, or far future, and every time I wake up I couldn't shake the damn feeling that I was getting a glimpse of what their future lives is going to be like. Just like me getting a feeling that the ones set in the past were really their past lives. 

I do have a recurring dream though, it took place way way way into the future, like shitastically into the future and Kenny and John was one of the last humans of Earth. It was depressing really when you think about it, I mean two people on the last clenches of humanity who grew up to be the last two people with only each other for a companion. But they made the most it of course, like they always have. They weren’t going to let a little fact like being the last ones alive of their kind stop them from having a partay as they would say. Probably helped immensely that they got along with each other just fine. 

Well there isn’t much else to say except thank you for coming along with me for the ride into the story of how they manage to weather the storm that was the Incident and still come out as closer than brothers. After witnessing all of that, there is absolute no doubt in my mind that nothing will break the bond between Kenny and John.

……...I still blame them for making me feel more bored than previously though haha. Oh well…..I’ll see them again someday.


End file.
